22 Held in New Pretoria Crackdown

By JOHN D. BATTERSBY, Special to the New York Times

Published: September 23, 1988

JOHANNESBURG, Sept. 22—
At least 22 black trade unionists and anti-apartheid organizers have been detained and the activities of five others have been restricted in a nationwide security crackdown this week.

The South African Police, aided by soldiers, also raided offices of labor unions, anti-apartheid organizations and civil rights groups nationwide and the homes of union organizers, seizing pamphlets and anti-apartheid literature.

In addition to the crackdown, which took place over the last four days, the Government today banned a major anti-apartheid conference that was to take place in Cape Town this weekend. #4th Fugitive at U.S. Consulate At the American Consulate in Johannesburg, a fourth South African fugitive took refuge today and the police issued a warrant for his arrest. But Foreign Minister Roelof F. Botha later announced that the warrant had been suspended after consultations with the Law and Order Minister, Adriaan J. Vlok.

The fugitive, Clifford Ngcobo, like the three who entered the consulate on Sept. 13, escaped from the nearby Johannesburg Hospital while undergoing medical treatment. Mr. Ngcobo, a member of an anti-apartheid group known as the Soweto Civic Association, had been held without charges since April.

The South African Government has offered assurances that the fugitives will not be arrested if they leave the consulate, but they have declared that they will stay until all other detainess are freed.

This week's anti-apartheid crackdown is the biggest since February, when the South African authorities restricted 17 anti-apartheid groups and restricted the activities of 18 anti-apartheid organizers. Identification of Detainees

Under a 28-month-old emergency decree the police are not obliged to disclose the names of detainees, but an unofficial list compiled by black trade unions and anti-apartheid groups has been released.

Most of those detained this week were members of either the 750,000-member Congress of South African Trade Unions, the major black labor federation, or the United Democratic Front, a restricted anti-apartheid umbrella group that claims more than two million members belonging to some 750 affiliates.

Also detained were Trevor Manuel, a regional leader of the United Democratic Front, and Zollie Malindi, a regional president of the Front in western Cape Province. Mr. Manuel was freed in July after two years in detention without charge.

Several regional organizers of the National Union of Metalworkers, a African National Congress affiliate, were also held.

Those whose activities were restricted included Christopher Dlamini, national vice president of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, and Sydney Mufamadi, assistant general secretary of the Congress. Earlier Government Action

Earlier in the week the police put restrictions on Aubrey Mokoena, chairman of the Release Mandela Campaign, a group working for the release of the jailed African National Congress leader, Nelson R. Mandela.

Under the restrictions, the individuals are limited to their homes at night and to their magisterial districts during the day, and they may not talk to journalists.

Senior security officials have linked the crackdown to an upsurge of radical activity and bombings that they say seems connected to the approach of local council elections, which are to be held separately, but simultaneously, for all racial groups nationwide on Oct. 26.

Bombs exploded in downtown Johannesburg on Wednesday night at a bus terminal and in a discotheque, wounding 38 people, at least 2 seriously. All 19 wounded at the discotheque were black; most of those injured at the bus terminal were white.

There was no claim of responsibility for either bombing. The outlawed African National Congress has struck increasingly at civilian targets recently, but the police were investigating reports that the discotheque bomb might have been planted by whites.